DESCRIPTION

This module is a wrapper around the Unix lsof utility (written by Victor A.Abell, Copyright Purdue University), which lists open files as well as information about the files and processes opening them. Unix::Lsof uses the lsof binary, so you need to have that installed in order to use this module (lsof can be obtained from ftp://lsof.itap.purdue.edu/pub/tools/unix/lsof).

By default, this module exports a single function lsof, to which you can pass the same parameters you would the lsof binary. When called in list context, lsof will return two values, a hash reference containing the parsed output of the lsof binary and a string containing (unparsed) any error messages. When called in scalar context, lsof will return a Unix::Lsof::Result object (see the documentation for that module for further details).

On request, you can also export the subroutine parse_lsof_output which will do what the name says and return the parsed output. Both of these support a number of options, passed in as a hash reference as the last argument (see section "OPTIONS" below).

INTERFACE

Subroutines

lsof accepts arguments passed on to the lsof binary. These need to be in list form, so you need to do

$r = lsof("-p",$pid,"-a","+D","/tmp");

NOT

$r = lsof("-p $pid -a +D /tmp");

SCALAR CONTEXT

Example:

$lr = lsof("afile");

When called in scalar context, lsof will return a Unix::Lsof::Result object. Please see the documentation for that module on how to use this object. I mean it, really, take a look there, you'll almost certainly want to use the Unix::Lsof::Result interface which gives you lots of helper methods to dig out exactly the information you want.

LIST CONTEXT

Example:

($output,$error) = lsof("afile");

When called in list context, lsof will return two values, a hash reference containing the parsed output of the lsof binary, and a string containing any error messages. The output data structure looks like this (approximating Data::Dumper formatting here:)

Each process id (pid) is the key to a hash reference that contains as keys the names of process set fields and their corresponding field value. The special files key has an array reference as value. Each element in this array is a hash reference that contains the names of file set fields and their values. See the section OUTPUT FOR OTHER PROGRAMS in the lsof manpage if you're wondering what process and file sets are.

Special mention needs to be made of the field "tcp/tpi info", since that will contain a list of information. Therefore, the value for this field is itself a hash reference. The keys of this hash are the long names of the information, as given in the lsof man page, the information names are:

Note that not all of this information is available on every dialect, see the lsof man page for more.

parse_lsof_output ( <STRING> )

This function takes the output as obtained from the lsof binary (with the -F0 option) and parses it into the data structure explained above. You need to pass the lsof STDOUT output in as a single string. Previous behaviour (passing the output as an array reference with one line of output per array element) is deprecated as of Unix::Lsof version 0.0.8 and may not work in future releases. parse_lsof_output does not understand the lsof STDERR output.

OPTIONS

You can (optionally) pass in a hash reference as the last argument to either lsof or parse_lsof_output. This reference can contain the following options:

binary

Contains the path of the lsof binary. Use this if lsof is not in your $ENV{PATH}.

suppress_errors

Default false. If set to 1, Unix::Lsof subroutines will not emit any warning messages and will not die on a fatal error. Diagnostics suppressed in this way can be found in $err (and $UNIX::Lsof::Result->err()).

tcp_tpi_parse

See the above section on "tcp/tpi info". Possible values:

"full"

Default. Parses out the tcptpi information and uses the long names as hash keys.

"part"

Also parses out the information, but uses the short names (e.g. QS for "send queue size") as keys.

"array"

Returns an array reference instead of a hash, each element of the array contains an unparsed TCP/TPI information (e.g. "QS=0").

DIAGNOSTICS

Cannot find lsof program

Couldn't find the lsof binary which is required to use this module. Either install lsof or (if it's installed) be sure that it is in your shells path.

Can't parse line

Encountered a line of lsof output which could not be properly parsed. If you get this from calling lsof() it is almost certainly a bug, please let me know so I can fix it. If you encountered it from running parse_lsof_output, please make sure that the output was obtained from running lsof with the -F0 option.

Adding results of this line to process set for PID %s

Appears in conjunction with the "invalid field identifier" warning and show that the incorrect output was encountered in a process set.

Adding results of this line to file set line

Appears in conjunction with the "invalid field identifier" warning and show that the incorrect output was encountered in a field set.

Previous record neither a process nor file set, identifier was "%s"

Appears in conjunction with the "invalid field identifier" warning, something else has gone wrong and we were unable to work around it. Please send a bug report to bug-unix-lsof@rt.cpan.org.

CONFIGURATION AND ENVIRONMENT

Unix::Lsof requires no configuration files. It searches for the lsof binary in the directories listed in your $PATH environment variable.

DEPENDENCIES

Unix::Lsof requires the following modules:

version

IPC::Run3

INCOMPATIBILITIES

None reported.

BUGS AND LIMITATIONS

No bugs have been reported so far. There are a number of improvements that could be made to this module, particularly in the handling of parameters. Further development is almost certainly strictly "develop by bugreport", so if you want a feature added, please open a wishlist item in the RT web interface and let me know. I'm more than happy to do more work on this module, but want to see what concrete improvements people would like to have. As always, patches are more than welcome.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A very heartfelt thanks to Vic Abell for writing lsof, it has been invaluable to me over the years. Many thanks as always to http://www.perlmonks.org, the monks continue to amaze and enlighten me. A very special thanks to Damian Conway, who (amongst other things) recommends writing module documentation at the same time as code (in his excellent book "Perl Best Practices"). I didn't follow that advice and as a result writing these docs was more painful and error-prone than it should have been. Please Mr. Conway, for the next edition could you put more emphasis on that recommendation so that dolts like me get it the first time?

AUTHOR

LICENCE AND COPYRIGHT

This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. See perlartistic.

DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY

BECAUSE THIS SOFTWARE IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE SOFTWARE, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE SOFTWARE "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE SOFTWARE IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE SOFTWARE PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR, OR CORRECTION.

IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR REDISTRIBUTE THE SOFTWARE AS PERMITTED BY THE ABOVE LICENCE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE SOFTWARE (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE SOFTWARE TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER SOFTWARE), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

Module Install Instructions

To install Unix::Lsof, simply copy and paste either of the commands in to your terminal